


Beginnings

by GoldenDusk



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Papyrus Knows More Than He Lets On, Papyrus Remembers Resets, Papyrus-centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-24
Updated: 2017-12-24
Packaged: 2019-02-19 23:04:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,216
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13134072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GoldenDusk/pseuds/GoldenDusk
Summary: Kgmps2 requested some platonic friendship between Papyrus and Alphys, Asgore or Flowey. So... here's a bit of all of them!





	1. Alphys

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kgmps2](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kgmps2/gifts).



For Alphys, it begins with the jogging. Papyrus already knows _of_ her (knows quite a lot about her, thanks to Undyne), but he’s never met her properly face-to-face until he convinces Undyne to ask her out and Undyne retaliates by dragging him along.

The jogging doesn’t really seem to help Alphys quite the way it does Papyrus. As great as he is, he knows that not everything that works for him (a hundred laps while convincing himself that he _is_ great, he’s _not_ worthless) will work for everyone else.

He hopes he’s impressed her a little, at least.

Once they’re sort-of settled on the surface, he and Undyne begin jogging every morning. It takes no more than two days for Alphys to join them. So, perhaps it did help, a little? Although Alphys gets exhausted pretty quickly, she remains set on jogging as often as she can with them. (Mostly with Undyne, Papyrus guesses. Undyne certainly seems happier when Alphys is there.)

The three of them, whenever they can, sit and talk outside the house Undyne and Alphys are living in now after they’re finished for the morning.

(Their habit of doing this starts completely by accident, when Alphys trips one morning, rolls right over and, somewhat disoriented, opts to not move for a little bit. Papyrus stops to make sure she’s okay, and a little way on, Undyne skids to a stop and runs back to ascertain the same thing.

She’s fine, but they get into a conversation sparked by Undyne’s tale of how she once tripped right off a cliff. By the time Alphys stands up, they’re talking about human currency and how weird it is compared to the Underground’s simple gold pieces.

The next day, when they finish jogging without anyone falling over, Alphys comments on it, and Papyrus mentions that Sans once tripped while sleepwalking, and rolled right over and didn’t even wake up. And then he stood up and continued sleepwalking. And Papyrus, who witnessed the entire thing, was understandably worried. Alphys says that she sleepwalked once into the True Lab… probably out of stress. Undyne, it turns out, has never sleepwalked, and Papyrus doesn’t sleep enough to know whether he could.

The subject shifts at some point, and, well, it’s a while before any of them thinks to bring up the fact that the sun has already risen, and they should probably get moving.

But someone brings up the concept of sleep-jogging the next morning, and it just continues from there.)

They talk about other monsters they know (the Royal Guard, some monsters that Alphys knew before she became the Royal Scientist, Undyne’s neighbours - well, neighbour) and how they’ve been doing on the surface.

About new things they’ve learned.

About humans they’ve met. Not all of them are nice, but many are. As the Greatest Mascot, Papyrus meets a lot of humans whenever Frisk has to do something ambassador-y, and it’s always an interesting experience, even if it’s not always a good one.

And yet, even though the three of them talk quite freely together, Papyrus can’t shake the worry that, far from being impressed with him (and maybe wanting to be friends), Alphys would just as rather not spend time with him at all, and without Undyne’s presence, she’d not be jogging at all.

But then, when Undyne gets a job (a job! On the surface!!!) and it starts keeping her busy in the mornings (to her utter frustration), Alphys... doesn’t stop jogging. She doesn’t speak as much, and seems more nervous, but she’s there every morning.

Papyrus decides that it’s simply because she can’t bring herself to say that she’d prefer not having to put up with his company.

After all, they haven’t had a single conversation since Undyne stopped coming. (Sure, there’s the “hi”s and the “see you!”s, but those don’t exactly count.)

However, one day, after they’ve finished jogging and caught their breath, Alphys says, laughing in that way you do when you’re pretending to joke but aren’t really joking, “I’m s-sorry you have to keep putting up with me every morning.”

And this catches Papyrus off guard, because _ISN’T IT THE OTHER WAY AROUND?_ and then he realises he’s just said that out loud. (On the surface, it seems so easy for him to slip and say something he’d rather not - he’s just barely managed to avoid doing it until now.)

There’s silence for a few seconds, then they burst into laughter (real laughter) at the same time. Papyrus isn’t sure whether they’re laughing at themselves or each other, but it doesn’t really matter.

It’s certainly a little silly of him not to have realised how alike they are in some ways. Alphys was probably just nervous about starting up a conversation without Undyne (who, naturally, would be one of the few people she’s felt more confident around since they’ve been together) being there - he being someone she didn’t know so well (besides, probably, secondhand knowledge from Undyne) and she worrying that he wasn’t interested in talking with her - the same worry as his.

(Of course, it’s easy to make logical sense of it. It’s harder to not be afraid anyway.)

Papyrus feels a lot better when they meet up to go jogging the next day. And the conversations continue.


	2. Asgore

For Asgore, it begins shortly after they reach the surface, once things begin to calm down. And it begins with a cup of tea. Asgore seems to find comfort in making it, and it feels as if every time Papyrus runs into him he ends up with a cup in his hand. It’s very good, though. If Undyne hadn’t told him herself that Asgore taught her how to make tea, he would probably still be able to tell.

This time, Sans is there too. Papyrus is proud; he hasn’t been napping quite as much as usual, recently. (Everyone has been busy since monsters flowed out onto the surface, really - monsters wanting to take in as much of the world now open to them as possible, humans struggling to accept the fact that monsters are real and accommodate them; and the busiest of all have been the Ambassador of Monsters (Frisk) and those closest to them. Which, of course, includes both Papyrus and Sans, as well as Asgore.)

The cup Papyrus is holding is empty, now, but he stays sitting, as while Sans seems lost on his phone (he actually has one now, and is _using_ it, instead of stealing Papyrus’s all the time!) Asgore is glancing between his own cup and the two of them, as though trying to think of something to say.

“THE SURFACE IS GREAT, ISN’T IT?” Papyrus begins, in an attempt to start a conversation, and immediately wants to smack himself on the forehead. What a stupid thing to say - of course the surface is great!

Asgore brightens, and smiles awkwardly. “It is certainly very… different from how it was last time I saw it, but it is, indeed, a “great” place. And it’s very pleasant to see monsterkind so happy lately. I… I thought for a long time that it would be impossible for us to live among humans again, but now I am certain I was wrong.”

He’s quiet for a moment, and then he asks them if they’ve decided where they’re going to live. They have; there’s a house right next to the one that Frisk and Toriel decided on that looks perfect. It has plenty of space, and the layout is quite similar to that of their home in Snowdin, besides having a lot more doors connecting the parts of the house.

“AND WHAT ABOUT YOU?” Papyrus asks him in turn.

“Oh…” Asgore droops a little. “Well, I have not yet found a place for myself yet, but I am sure I will eventually.”

And Papyrus wonders if the cause for Asgore’s sadness is really that he hasn’t found a place, or if it’s that when he does, he will still be alone.

Frisk would likely be happy for Asgore to stay with them, but Toriel still dislikes him, so she wouldn’t be. And Undyne and Alphys, in the house they’ve chosen to the other side of Frisk’s, are a couple in the honeymoon stage; Undyne would doubtless invite Asgore to live with them, but while staying a few days as a guest might not be too bad, he would not want to impose on them any longer than that.

…That’s not right. He’s already had to live all by himself for so long.

Before second thoughts can take over and keep him quiet, Papyrus blurts out “WHY DON’T YOU STAY WITH US?” and regrets it for an instant, (maybe he was completely wrong and Asgore wants to find a place to live alone and-) but then Asgore’s face lights up in a way quite familiar to Papyrus (as familiar as his greeting of “Howdy!”) and the regret vanishes.

“Would that… really be okay?” Asgore asks, looking from one of them to the other, as if he expects the offer to be immediately rescinded, resigning him once more to loneliness.

“fine by me,” Sans says with a shrug and a grin.

And so, when they move into their new houses, Asgore moves with them.


	3. Flowey

For Flowey, it began long before Frisk fell into the Underground, in distant memories.

The first time Papyrus met him; a flower who was lonely and scared but still kind. Who talked with Papyrus when no one else would.

The first time Flowey said that Papyrus was cool. (He was the first one to ever say that, besides Sans… and, well, Sans is family.)

The first time he told Papyrus who he used to be, though terrified that Papyrus wouldn’t want to be his friend after he had. (Papyrus proved to him that wasn’t true.)

The first time Papyrus started the Flowey Fan Club, and Flowey looked so _happy._ Papyrus has since taken every possible opportunity to start it, and it always brings a smile to Flowey’s face no matter what state he’s in.

The first time Flowey met Sans... they were never exactly friends, but they certainly got along better back then.

The first time Flowey told Papyrus how _bored_ he was, and then panicked and reset everything, because Papyrus wasn’t supposed to know what he could do, and he was still afraid that Papyrus would dislike him. (Papyrus had developed the habit of keeping quiet about things he wasn’t supposed to know long before, and so he said nothing, but instead tried his best to cheer Flowey up.)

The first time Flowey killed him, in an argument that, ironically, had actually been about killing. The last thing Papyrus saw before he dusted was Flowey, with a terrified expression on his face and tears in his eyes, and then when Papyrus regained his consciousness, time had been wound back to before they had met. (Flowey vanished after that for several days, and after that, while Papyrus occasionally caught glimpses of him, Flowey didn’t show himself directly to Papyrus for a while.)

There were many more firsts after that, but none of them were pleasant. There was so much pain, and the worst of it came from the knowledge that Flowey was so alone, and so frustrated, and Papyrus couldn’t help him.

Eventually, Flowey convinced himself that he didn’t care about anyone else anymore.

And yet…

The first time Flowey showed up, and introduced himself to Papyrus, and they talked (and Papyrus proved that he wouldn’t stop being Flowey’s friend, even if it was only to himself).

The first time Flowey didn’t kill anyone (he was still alone and frustrated, but perhaps Papyrus had finally gotten through to him).

The first time Sans reacted with suspicion to his mention of a little yellow flower (and Papyrus had no idea if Sans remembered or not, but it didn’t matter) and Papyrus said _YES, HE’S MY FRIEND._

The first time Flowey asked what Papyrus would think of a bad person who would kill their family and friends because they could take it back and no one would know. If he would hate them. (Completely hypothetically, of course.) Papyrus answered that of _course_ he wouldn’t hate them; if they made up for killing people by un-killing them, then that meant they were willing to do the right thing. And even bad people can change, if they’ll just try.

(Even the worst person can change. And Flowey is far from being the worst person.)

Flowey didn’t kill, after that. Not until the human came. He insisted occasionally that it was merely because he’d become bored of killing (and he would still reset time whenever he directly mentioned his ability to do so; that part never changed, no matter where he was) but he’d said at least once that he was bored with Papyrus, yet he never stopped hanging out with him. (Except when he was killing him. But it’s kind of hard to hang out with and also kill someone at the same time.)

And Papyrus never stopped wanting to hang out with him, either. It’s not as if dying didn’t hurt, but… Flowey was worth it. 

And, judging by the way Flowey smiled whenever Papyrus showed up, Flowey thought he was worth it, too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope these were okay! Happy Holidays!!!


End file.
